Teens rescued from ice in Magothy River

Rescuers say no safe ice in Maryland

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PASADENA, Md. -

It's a pier to nowhere -- a small island, which once served as a bit of paradise on the Magothy River, which became the launching point for a daring rescue Sunday when a pair of teens became trapped on a floating sheet of ice.

"I seen the two kids out there standing on the ice, and I'm wondering where they came from. Why would they get on that ice?" said David Rayford who spotted the teens from his nearby home.

Or better still---who would be able to get them off of it?

Enter members of this special Technical Rescue Unit housed in Jones Station 23 in nearby Severna Park.

"They were on the ice, but between them and the shore, the ice had broken so they couldn't get back to shore without getting in the water," said Firefighter David Bobb.

After tossing life jackets to the stranded teens and a rope to keep them from floating farther from shore, the team put on exposure suits and made their way through the icy waters with this large rubber inflatable to carry them to safety.

"They were rather happy when they got on shore," said Bobb, "The one patient said he was rather cold and couldn't feel his toes."

Lt. Richard Cleary says no matter how solid the ice may seem, there is no such thing as safe ice with Maryland's climate, and once you fall in the water, time, the temperature and the ice, itself, are all working against you.

"That's the big problem, because it's slippery," said Cleary, "It's hard once you fall through to pull yourself back up out of the water on to the ice and then try to get to shore. It's very difficult."

Paramedics treated the unidentified teens for exposure.

The Technical Rescue Unit is the same unit, which pulled a 10-year old girl from a 30-foot well in Pasadena last month.

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.